Bidding farewell to New Girl
In 2011, we were introduced to five friends attempting to navigate young-adulthood. After seven seasons, we say goodbye to the loft.
New Girl, the ensemble comedy about five 20-somethings navigating life and love in Los Angeles, comes to a close after wrapping it’s seventh season.
The show was both one of Fox’s biggest hits and yet somehow underrated. It premiered in a time when 30-minute comedies on network television was at a really high point. The Office and 30 Rock were wrapping up, while Parks & Recreation and Community were still in their primes. The dichotomy of where these shows lived on network television is important to note, too.
NBC is arguably the Michael Jordan of comedic sitcoms, being the home to Cheers, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Friends, Seinfeld, Golden Girls, and Scrubs along with the aforementioned 30 Rock, The Office, P&R, and Community.
Meanwhile, New Girl has stood somewhat on it’s own with Fox as it’s dominant 30-minute comedies were largely cartoons. The Simpsons — which has been around for decades — gave life to similar cartoon comedies like Family Guy, Bob’s Burgers, Futurama and King of the Hill.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine came along as a peer to New Girl on Fox, but has since (thankfully) found a new home on NBC (comedic sitcom’s MJ).
New Girl was able to buck the trend of Fox’s usual comedies because it was funny, relatable and was a heartwarming watch. It was truly one of the first shows about millennials trying to figure out what their paths were in life. There weren’t storylines about stereotypical millennial plights like going to brunch, eating avocado toast or being glued to phones.
It was more real than that. What it’s truly like to be a millennial today is figuring out how to pay rent as cost-of-living explodes; going through various jobs and careers until you find your passion; living with other transplants in a large city; and dealing with the difficulty of dating in the 21st century.
These lovable characters lost jobs, they lost love, they found new career paths, and struggled to pay bills. It detailed life after college that you may not be prepared for (despite the fact that they lived in downtown Los Angeles in a loft that even four people probably couldn’t afford realistically.) What anchored the show, though, were the friendships that these characters shared.
Jess and Nick worked just fine whether they were flirting with a relationship, or being friends as they dealt with outside love interests. Schmidt and Winston would hilariously compete for top friend status to Nick, all while discovering their own friendship. And you can’t forget the classic Winston-Cece Mess Arounds.
However, despite the fact that many of us would watch the show for years, the story needed to come to an end. In real life, 20-somethings turn into 30-somethings. We love these characters so we don’t want them to be 40 and still living together without marriage, children or careers. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just that these are all things we knew these characters would want. The personal growth had to happen sooner rather than later.
New Girl taught us that growing into adulthood isn’t always squeaky clean. If you’re still trying to figure things out, you’re not alone. Just be as optimistic as Jess, weird as Winston, and as determined as Schmidt.
1, 2, 3, 4, JFK!
